The RMT fight is the fight of all who give priority to safety rather than delivering the highest profit to shareholders. Therefore we condemn in the strongest of terms the local Labour politicians' decision to press for driver-only operation.

"I fully support the RMT in its campaign to defend safety on trains and call for the proposed driver-only policy to be immediately withdrawn. It's frankly unbelievable that some Labour politicians are so hell-bent on removing guards from our trains when the public clearly favours their retention, and shocking that Labour's candidate for city region mayor cannot seem to find the necessary words to condemn this unsafe, unnecessary and unpopular policy. The city region deserves far better than this."